Willie Aaron Lewis

#PPOD: The First Look at Venus On October 22, 1975, the Soviet Union's Venera 9 spacecraft made history by transmitting the first photograph from another planet's surface. Landing on Venus at about 32° south latitude, the spacecraft survived for 53 minutes in crushing atmospheric pressure and temperatures hot enough to melt lead. The black-and-white panorama reveals a rocky landscape dominated by angular, partially weathered stones roughly 30–40 centimeters across, many partly buried in soil. The bright white shape at the bottom is part of the lander, while the scene's curved appearance results from the camera's imaging system. Although Venera 9 returned only this single view, it gave humanity its first direct glimpse of Venus's surface, transforming a world hidden beneath thick clouds into a place we could finally see. Credit: Soviet Academy of Sciences #otd #planetaryscience

🌕 Could the Moon be a billion-year archive of ancient alien technology? Unlike Earth, the Moon has no atmosphere, oceans, or plate tectonics to continually erase its geological history. That makes lunar regolith a promising place to search for microscopic technosignatures that may have traveled across interstellar space. On #SETILive, SETI Institute Affiliate Scientist Lewis Pinault explains why the Moon could preserve evidence of technological civilizations from billions of years ago. 🔬 Watch the full conversation with host Simon Steel: youtube.com/live/dBAUleB7SJs